"I'm wiped out. The shower made me realize that before I flashed you. I think I'm going to crash. I've got tomorrow off and I intend to do as little as I can, for once."

"That sounds like a great idea," Palla agreed. "Oh, and Lil?"

Lily paused from where she'd risen from the chair. "Huh?"

"What I saw-in the bathroom? That was not a boy-that was a very pretty girl who will turn into a beautiful young woman any day now."

"Yeah, that didn't make me feel any more awkward," Lily groaned.

Palla laughed. She glanced down at the shadows revealed by the low neck on her sleep shirt and then looked up at Lily. She had a wry grin on her lips as she said, "Trust me, I was pretty shocked the day I woke up and realized I had breasts."

Lily rolled her eyes. "They don't grow overnight!"

"It felt like it to me. And besides, don't you think it's about time you were a late bloomer for something?"

Lily shook her head and waved behind her back at her as she walked into the bedroom and headed straight for her bed. Troubled or not, she was tired. Tired and, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she couldn't wait for tomorrow. A full day off meant she could do some digging and read up on getting a head start on her biomech pilot training.

Taking time off? That could wait. She had a life to live. And she'd learned firsthand that life could end at any minute. She could rest when she was dead.

Chapter 31.

Krys walked through the field with his satchel of tools in his hand. He could have taken a transporter but he figured they were overused enough as it was. That and he enjoyed the walk. It was a little over three veeks into a day cycle and the sun was warm and the ground dry. And the harvester that was supposed to be collecting the first crop of wheat was down with what sounded like a broken drive motor on one of the wheels.

Getting the wheel off and replacing the electric motor was a miserable job that would take a couple of hours. Krys wasn't looking forward to the work, but he'd taken something his father had once told him to heart. It wasn't about the work that was done; it was about how he did the work that mattered. He could fix one machine or a hundred and not be remembered for either. If he was happy with how he did it, then that was what would get him through the day.

President Ondalla might feel differently, but for all Krys cared President Ondalla could have one of the genetically modified Venerian corn cobs shoved up his- Krys's unkind thoughts were interrupted by a chirp from his phone. He glanced down at it and saw that Shelby was calling him. He smiled and answered it. "Hey, shouldn't you be marching up and down main street or something?"

"Very funny," she said. "I'm calling to wish you a happy birthday. If you're the real Krys Evans, that is."

Krys laughed. It was a private joke between them after almost two years since she'd showed up and uprooted his life. He'd adapted and even if he didn't agree with how things were done, he took pride in how he did his part in them. He didn't think of it as making things better for humanity or even the guy in charge. Krys was more focused on how he could try to make his life and the life of the other people who worked for the new government better.

"Sixteen's the age of majority-you're an adult."

"Yeah, guess so."

"You don't sound very excited."

Krys shrugged. "What's there to be excited about? I've been working already. Got my own place. I've been driving vehicles for a while now too. What else is there?"

"You can, um, socialize."

"Socialize?"

"Yeah, you know, social contracts and such."

Krys grimaced. "Marriage? Yeah, that's a great idea. There are so many people my age around me."

She was silent on the other end of the phone for several seconds until she came back on. "You're old for your age, Krys. Old-fashioned, too-marriage is from the old ways. It doesn't make sense anymore. Social contracts make so much more sense. In fact, cohabitation and agreeing to share burdens and tasks are precisely the ideals our society has to be based on."

"Okay, if you say so. Oh, there's the harvester I'm-"

"Krys?"

Krys stared at the group of people gathered around the autonomous vehicle. There shouldn't have been anyone but him within a few kilometers. "Um, sorry. Looks like something's broke pretty bad. I better get started."

"Oh, okay," Shelby said. "You're sure everything's okay?"

"Yeah," Krys said while squinting to try to make out details of the people. He counted six of them.

"Well, whether you like it or not, I'm making you a birthday dinner tonight. Maybe there'll be a present for you, too, if you're good."

Krys grunted. "Uh, okay. Thanks."

Shelby sighed. "You're already caught up in fixing it, aren't you? Okay, well, I'll see you later. Hurry back!"

Krys grunted again and terminated the call. He tucked it into his pocket and glanced around the open field of waist-high wheat before he started walking down the shallow hill towards the harvester. He walked less than a dozen paces before they noticed him and started to scramble.

"Wait!" Krys shouted and waved his hands. "Don't run!"

One of them stopped, which led to the others slowing one at a time and staring back at him. Krys kept walking, his hands up in the air, and focused on the man closest to the harvester and closest to him.

"Krys?" the disheveled man asked.

"Mr. Strain?" Krys gasped.

"You're alive!" Mig whooped before he started running forward.

Krys found himself running and then he was lifted into the air in a crushing hug. He landed hard and staggered back but kept grinning the entire time. "So are you!"

Mig laughed and turned to motion to the others to join them. Krys counted again and recognized the former survivors as they approached. They'd changed, in small ways mostly. Dirtier, for one thing, but also leaner and harder looking. Every one of them was showing patches of skin through the tears and worn-out fabric of the clothes they wore. Kerry was shirtless and Stef wore the tattered remains of his shirt. The men had beards and scruffy hair while the women looked weathered.

"Where's Janna?" Krys asked.

Mig licked his lips and sighed. "She went looking for you when you didn't show up," he said.

"The soldiers didn't find her," Krys said. "I would have heard."

He shook his head. "No, they didn't. She had an accident in the woods and broke her legs. By the time we came back and found her, she was gone."

"Dead?"

Mig nodded. He sniffed and glanced at the ground while the others came up and offered Krys hugs, handshakes, and pats on the back. He was swept away with all the questions until a chuckling Mig called out loud enough to get their attention. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let the boy catch his breath! Except you're not really much of a boy anymore, are you, son? My Lily would be sixteen now."

"Today's my birthday," Krys said. He jerked his head and stared at Mig, stopping the man's surprised reaction before it started. "Lily's alive!"

Mig took a step back and Angelo put a hand on his back to steady him. "You've seen her?"

Krys nodded. "On the news. She-"

"The news?" Mig breathed.

"Yes, she's amazing," Krys said. He blushed and then pushed on in spite of it. "I mean, I've dug up what I could about her. She's some kind of genius! A real genius. They're calling her a prodigy. The youngest student to ever obtain her mastery and she's competing against people four years older than her in her ACT."

"ACT? Mastery? What are you talking about?"

"That's how they do things now. All children attend centralized education centers. Based on their aptitudes and scores, they are assigned a mastery path. It's like a career path or something. Lily could have done anything when she got her mastery. That means she graduated. She did it when she was still fifteen!"

Mig grinned like a fool and turned to look at the others.

"ACT is Advanced Cadet Training," Krys explained. Everyone stared at him with confused expressions on their faces. "Remember those big robots that came for us? They're called biomechs. Lily is going to pilot one. She could do it now but they won't install the hardware until she's seventeen."

Mig shook his head. "She's going to be one of them? A soldier? But-"

Krys frowned. "I don't think she wants to be a soldier."

"But you said...this is confusing, Krys."

"Sorry, I know it's a lot to take in. She keeps talking about wanting to be the best so she can compete in the games."

"What games?" Fina asked.

Krys studied her and noticed how much older she looked. A few Venerian solar cycles without proper shelter and food would do that to a person, he supposed. She didn't seem as on edge as she used to be either. "It's the new sport. Biomech matches. There's a league with a tournament at the end. The first tournament is underway already. Only the best biomech pilots get to compete. They have small unit individual classes."

"That sounds insane," Kerry mumbled. Stef nodded her head beside him.

Krys looked at them all as they tried to process what he'd told them. "Are you guys the reason my harvester broke down?"

Gary was the first to answer while Mig continued to stare at the ground. "Not the reason. We wandered across it and we were about to strip it down for parts."

"What do you mean, your harvester?" Mig asked him.

Krys swallowed and turned to face his former mentor. "That's what I do now-I keep their machines running. They were supposed to send me away for reeducation but I showed them what I could do. The man I worked with, Lesk, was killed in a-hey! You guys didn't raid a convoy awhile back, did you?"

Everyone shook their heads. "No," Mig said. "We stay low and out of sight, mostly. Haven't found any other survivors either, but it's good to know they're out there."

Krys didn't trust himself to speak so he nodded. Lesk had been his friend. The people he lived and worked with now weren't any different from his family had been before. Just innocent people doing what they had to do to get by. Even the soldiers were people. Humans, like him and Lily and Mr. Strain. All people doing jobs they had to do because somebody had an idea of how they wanted things to be.

"You coming with us?" Mig asked him.

Krys stared at him and then glanced back at the shallow hill behind him. Several kilometers beyond the hill, Shelby would be waiting for him with a birthday dinner. And a present, he remembered. But what could she give him? Another outlawed alcoholic drink? Or maybe something more personal, maybe- Krys almost laughed at himself. Who was he kidding? He was a kid! Well, maybe not anymore, legally, but she was still five years older than him. She cared for him, sure, but like a brother or a friend. Not like that. Krys sighed and turned back.

"No."

"So you're one of them, then? Just like my Lily, she's decided to forget everything that-"

"Mig, stop," Angelo growled.

Mig turned away and hung his head.

"Mr. Strain, I don't want anyone getting hurt anymore," Krys explained. "But that's going to keep happening the way things are. It's slavery, what they're doing to people. I see it but almost no one else does. It's like they've been brainwashed to not understand the history of the human race."

Mig turned back around. "What are you saying?"

Krys took a deep breath. "I'm saying I'm staying, but I'm going to help you."

"How?"

Krys took a moment to meet each of their gazes. "Don't use anything electrical-they can track it. Stay natural, as much as you can."

Kerry reached up to scratch his beard and smiled for effect.

"Whenever I can, I'll bring supplies out. Find a way to leave a list of things you need and keep checking whenever you can."

"Where?"

"The third pineapple field, on the southern side of the irrigation pump. That's central enough I can make up an excuse to swing through there from time to time."

Mig stared at him and nodded, and then he thrust his hand out. Krys shook it and understood why Mr. Strain didn't offer any words. Krys was fighting the lump in his own throat. He was spared when Fina swept him into another hug and kissed him on the cheek.

"What?" he gulped.

"Thank you for saving us," she said.

Krys felt the world spinning as he tried to figure out what she meant. "Oh, you mean when I left you guys?"

She squeezed him again and let go.

"You guys stay safe," Krys said. "And get going. I've got a lot of work today and I still have to figure out the details of leaving stuff for you. Anything you need right away?"

Mig turned to the others as they all started talking. Krys winced and then reached into his satchel to pull out his infopad. He had a hunch he was going to need to write it down.

Chapter 32.